RoadwayR

It did indeed, but was sold off with Monaco motorhomes when cash got tight because of someone's bad idea about EGR. Why did they buy a motorhome manufacturer? International Harvester did that in the 70's with similar disastrous results. I always wondered about that plant fire.......... I was told the chassis under the new Chevy 4500/5500/6500 trucks evolved from a medium duty chassis that Workhorse was developing before NAV sold them off.

A little disappointed that the PSI 8.8L isn't in this truck. Not that the Ram 6.4L isn't a robust and powerful engine, but I have my doubts about the Ram automatic transmission. The 8.8L is still a larger and more heavy duty engine, and it teams well with the 2000 series Allison. Starting to wonder if Navistar is putting PSI under pressure not to sell to other OEM's.

They sure did get their money's worth with the LLV. And, it wasn't that special: Take a 4 cylinder Chevy S-10 chassis, throw a wide Silverado 1500 rear axle under it for stability, and get Grumman-Olsen to make an aluminum box body for the whole mess. Cheap, simple, reliable, useful, and lasted well past the expiration date!

I don't think Ford or GM see any real profit in this. Not going to be a lot of margin in these vehicles, I figure USPS will put them through the wringer with endless requirements, who knows how many will actually be purchased, and once the contract is fulfilled it will be adios for 25 years. Both Ford and GM probably figure every low margin PITA postal bucket built is one less high margin Explorer/Acadia/Traverse/Edge. Companies in trouble don't do things like this. USPS ought to buy something 'off the shelf' like a Transit Connect and stop trying to reinvent the wheel. The numbers ought to be good enough to get some special options like right hand drive, ect.. Agreed about Workhorse. Never got off the ground after being sold off by Navistar. And I am sure if NAV still owned it, it would be doing well right now. And Surefly would have never happened..........

I don't think their problem is North American product, current or future. They are on the right track in that regard. Their problems are Europe, South America, and China.

Couldn't sell trucks in North America, so they go to 'developing markets' in poor countries? In any event, I always thought UD should have been developed into a medium duty line for Volvo and Mack in North America. Volvo seems to think the road to success in the U.S. is through no medium duty product, significant overlap between their 2 North American brands, and most importantly, no dealers . Genius!

No joke, poor fitting doors are a major customer complaint on all the F series trucks now. Not sure why, are they dimensionally unstable coming out of the stamping dies or do they bend easily?

I used to think DVT-573 did a pretty good impression of a slow moving rocket propelled grenade!

Sure sounds like that, doesn't it? My question is does this policy include commercial vehicles as well? If so the E series and 650/750 are goners too. My guess is the Ranger, Bronco, and F-150 will be built off the one BOF platform, and they are not including commercial vehicles.

Interesting. Start of a trend?

Used to call those things 'Mansfield Bars', due to a very unfortunate accident involving a movie star.......

Speaking of U-Haul and the F-650, I expected to see 100's of 650's in U-Haul livery by now, but I have only seen a handful. It seems that all the U-Haul franchises near me no longer rent anything larger than a Ford E series or GMC Savanna cut-away van.

You know, that would be a great option for the new HX, wouldn't it?

Is Isuzu still thinking about an LCF tandem? If so, will Spartan build it?

The first Chevy diesels came out in 1962. At first, only the 4-53 and 6V-53 were offered (3-53 in Step-Van chassis). The Toroflow's came in 1964, and I think the Detroit 71's and Cummins N's came later around 1969.

Should have a 348. 409's and diesels were still a few years away.

Are these trucks going to be sold in western Europe?

Saw that coming. VW is next.

O.K., thanks. Pretty sure that's not coming here. Ford is rumored to be divesting out of some regions by the end of the year, South America has been mentioned. I wouldn't be surprised if the JV in Turkey is included as well.

I think the whole point of the current F-650/750 was to offer a low cost limited option medium duty with an 'in house' powertrain. I think that Ford has been quite successful with this plan, they may not have the best medium duty truck but they have a good cost advantage over the competition. The 7X engine should be a welcome replacement for the old V-10. What is this 'H' cab?

The City Express was not much more than a limited market testing exercise, if it would have sold GM would have built their own small van. It's a small price sensitive market in the U.S. that Ford practically owns, and it isn't real profitable anyway. Not sure VW will ever end up owning all of Navistar. My best guess is some sort of merger could be a possibility in the distant future after VW spins their truck unit off, but probably not before that. Not sure Navistar would want to kick GM out of their plants either. Navistar is doing good business assembling GM's cut-away van chassis (and probably wouldn't mind more of GM's van work). The JV medium will provide International a class 4/5 truck to replace the discontinued TerraStar, and GM will likely become an engine (small diesel and gasoline) and cab component supplier to Navistar. In addition, I think there will be more JV's between GM and Navistar going forward. No doubt MAN/Scania will also be very important partners as well, if not more so than GM. You know, with GM's Duramax, MAN, and Scania diesels, International could drop Cummins eventually.

A glider set up for a Detroit 60 series would make for a nice truck! BTW- I thought they were going to offer that PSI 8.8L V-8.

Most fire apparatus in Los Angeles was Hall-Scott powered up into the mid-70's. They had a sound all their own.

BTW, I am hearing rumors that there will be a Chevy class 7/8 in a few years. My guess is another JV with Navistar.

The Chevy 6500 is definitely a niche truck for the customer that needs something between 19,500 and 23,000 GVW at a low price without the bulk of a traditional class 6. I understand completely the advantages of a cabover, we just added some Isuzu NRR's to our fleet. Not only is the package more efficient than say a Ford F-550, but the 4HK1 engine is more than enough for a truck this size. Cab notwithstanding, I think the biggest problem with these domestic class 4/5/6 conventionals is their diesel engines are far too large and powerful for most commercial applications.